The Farmer's Tears: Sowing Through Scarcity and Peril

Spurgeon observed peasants sowing seed not merely with tears, but in conditions that would wring tears from any soul. During seasons of great scarcity, poor farmers parted with every precious measure of seed—like taking bread from their children's mouths. The distress ran so deep that governments were compelled to furnish seed, or cultivation would cease entirely. Ibrahim Pasha did this more than once in Spurgeon's lifetime, echoing the example of Joseph in Egypt after the seven-year famine.…